Another SXSW Interactive has wrapped up. Thousands of digital natives—writers, developers, engineers, makers, hackers, publishers—are now heading back to their days jobs, wondering exactly what they got out of this year's show. Also in attendance were a truly shocking number of advertisers with their support system of planners, buyers, and cool hunters. And you can't forget the celebrities and partiers. (Having been to many of these, I promise you the "best" bash is always somewhere else—and you're not on the list.)

It was a banner year with 30,621 attendees, up 25 percent from last year. Indeed, if you wanted guaranteed entry to a popular keynote, you had to get in line at least 30 minutes early.

And yet, despite the crowds, the overall tone was muted. There was no new killer app, no dramatic defining moment, no audience Twitter revolt at a terribly boring session—though there were definitely boring sessions.

SXSW featured rocket scientists, self-made billionaires, and former Vice President Al Gore, but the most popular attraction was a frowny-faced feline. Is this where the digital revolution has led us? This generation is supposed to change the world, but first they have to pose for a picture with Grumpy Cat.

As a tradeshow, there was a lot for a content guy like me. The Poynter Institute revealed the results of a recent study on how users read tablets. They used eye-tracking technology to measure precisely where readers were looking every millisecond to evaluate what content works on tablets. I also heard the New York Times' David Carr defend the paper's paywall as the only hope for quality journalism—an act of bravery in a crowd that will wait in line for 40 minutes for a free beer.

Frankly, a lot of the value of SXSW is for insiders. That said, there are always a few technologies that will leap across the divide and go mainstream. It happened with Twitter and Foursquare, and it will happen again with something this year. Best of all, this year turned out to be great not just for software and apps, but for hardware.

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1. Grumpy Cat's 15 Minutes of Fame

I didn't want to include this, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. I swung by the Mashable tent to say hi to ex-PCMagger and current Mashable Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff and walked past a line of at least 200 people. Surely this couldn't be Mashable's blogger army waiting for Lance's instructions to run out and cover the show? No, they were waiting in line to get a picture with Grumpy Cat, who spent the show napping. Now, I love a good meme as much as the next guy, but if you spent your precious hours at SXSW waiting in line for a photo with someone else's cat, you are doing it wrong. Get a life. Or at least a cat.

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2. Leap Motion's Grand Gesture

There generally aren't a lot of hardware product launches at SXSW. This year, though, Leap showed off its new gesture-based controller in a keynote and let attendees get some hands-on time with the device in a tent behind the convention center. Leap Motion is like Kinect for your PC; it can detect hand movements in a roughly two-by-two foot space. I used it to play Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope, but I also got to do a little virtual sculpting. Obviously, the technology will need some third-party support to take off, but it will be on the market in just a few weeks. And at $60, the Leap Motion is an affordable novelty. I think it will be much more than that.

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3. MakerBot's 3D Laser Scanner

MakerBot's Bre Pettis made some news when he unveiled a 3D laser scanner. Right now, if you want to make something with a 3D printer, you need a CAD file that defines what your project looks like. With the new 3D laser scanner, you can create your own CAD file without any programming. Just put an object in the center of the turntable and three lasers will scan it and create a file. For those of you paying attention, this is when the machines start to build themselves.

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4. Jonah Peretti Shares BuzzFeed's Secrets Sauce

At every SXSW, there is a media darling—someone or something that seems to have a secret for making media and making money. This year, that darling was BuzzFeed.com's Jonah Peretti, who explained how BuzzFeed went from the site that collected cat videos to the site that breaks news and has the ear of the media elite. Peretti sees a world in which social media replaces search as the springboard for finding content. But remember that what people share is very different from what they search for. Just think, would you want to share the search history on your Facebook page? I wouldn't. "Scoops and quality reporting are what get shared," Peretti said.

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5. Sex Can Be a Tough Sell

I tried to get into Al Gore's keynote on the future, but it exceeded capacity and I got turned away. The next best thing was Cindy Gallop's talk on the future of porn. Gallop runs a site called makelovenotporn.com, which is designed to counter the distorted, unrealistic portrayals of sex in the mainstream porn industry. As you can imagine, the talk was explicit, but never obscene. Gallop also dropped knowledge bombs, like the fact that the average child first sees hardcore pornography at age eight.

Still, Gallop insists she comes in peace. "I want to help the porn industry. I want to help it find new business models," she said.

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6. Dell's Stirring Behind the Scenes

In all the years I've attended SXSW, I have never seen a stronger presence from Dell than at this show. Headquartered just a few miles down the road, Dell hadn't been a big player at SXSW in the past; even this year it wasn't part of the official program. But it was demoing new products off-site and co-sponsored the Fader Fort, basically stage and demo space the size of a football field. Dell Marketing VP Neil Hand showed me this XPS 18 AIO display backstage. He says he wants to get Dell's mojo back.

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7. Bruce Sterling's Closing Remarks

If you haven't seen one of Bruce Sterling's closing talks, it's hard to explain. The part cyberpunk-manifesto, part cranky-old-man-telling-the-next-generation-to-get-off-his-lawn speech is worth watching when someone inevitably posts it online. He He just published a new novel (which he says is one of his best), but no one will read it. "This just isn't a world where novels mean anything anymore," he said. Instead, he wields far more influence over the world via his Twitter, Tumblr, and talks like this.

Disruption isn't always positive. Sterling asked the crowd to take credit for what they have destroyed (novels, bookstores, the music industry). And the next thing to be destroyed? The PC. "The personal computer will have both appeared and disappeared in my lifetime," Sterling said. "I will outlive the personal computer."

About the Author

Dan Costa is the Editor-in-Chief of PCMag.com and the Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff-Davis. He oversees the editorial operations for PCMag.com, Geek.com, ExtremeTech.com as well as PCMag's network of blogs, including AppScout and SecurityWatch. Dan makes frequent appearances on local, national, and international news programs, including ... See Full Bio

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